A geeky mum's view of the world around her

Replacing our Boiler

This time last year, our boiler packed in. We were silly and didn’t have it insured, despite being home owners. So we had to find the money to get it repaired during what we jokingly call “poor month”. (Like most UK households, we definitely feel the pinch in January, following all of the Christmas indulgences). The engineer came out, took one look at it and said it was time to consider replacing our boiler. We didn’t have the money for that at the time, so reluctantly paid £300 to “patch it up”. The engineer warned us that our boiler would still need replacing, so we set about pricing up new ones.

Where to start

Like most people, we took to the internet to price up a replacement boiler. Plenty of energy suppliers offer 0% interest on new boilers, but their prices are hugely inflated. The price we were quoted for a new home boiler varied from between £4500 to £6000 from energy suppliers. We quickly decided that wasn’t an option.

We needed a wall hung boiler, but you can also opt for a floor standing one. Our house is a 3 story town house, with 4 bedrooms. We were advised by one engineer that we may want to consider an energy efficient commercial boiler, rather than a domestic one. In the end, we opted for a higher end domestic model.

Saving up

What is it they say about things happening in threes? Less than two weeks after we paid out £300 to patch up the boiler, it died again. This time a wonderful friend got her boiler engineer brother to repair it at cost for us. The fun didn’t end there, though… Less than 2 weeks after that, the boiler died a total death. We were left with no heating or hot water in February. (Remember the snow last year)? It wasn’t much fun. We were using kettles to fill up baths and relying on fan heaters and the electric fire to keep us warm. Truthfully… We did miss the radiators though!

We could have maxed out the credit card and paid 40% interest on the cost of the boiler, but instead we opted to save the cash. I grew up in a house without central heating, so I didn’t struggle too much. The kids were fine too – we just wore layers and replacing our boiler became our number one priority. Hubby definitely felt the cold the most, but he managed.

If you are a home owner, it is worth seeing if your local council offer a “Warm at home” grant. This helped us out massively and enabled us to get things sorted much faster.

Replacing Our Boiler

The weather had warmed up massively by the time we were finally replacing our boiler. It took the engineer a full day to complete the process. Before he arrived, we had to remove the kitchen cupboard from the wall. The engineer’s first job was to empty the water from the existing system. Next, he removed the old boiler, before installing the new one. Finally, he refilled the system before an electrician wired up the control panel. Once we got the kitchen cupboard back on the wall, the job was done!

What We Learnt

Boiler insurance is a must! If (like us) you won your home but don’t have any savings, it’s not easy to find £4000 with next to no notice. We don’t have relatives we can ask for financial help, so it’s all on us. If you’re looking to replace your boiler, definitely phone local engineers as they are much cheaper than energy providers and still offer insurance on their work. You can find plenty of trader review websites online if you’re concerned about hiring a “cowboy”.

Finally… If you’ve enjoyed this post, why not check out my other home blog posts?